NAVTEQ Maps Power New Voice Navigator Product

Jan. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NAVTEQ today announced that NavStar Technologies, Inc., a technology development company, will power its new Voice Navigator product with NAVTEQ map data for the United States. Each quarter, NavStar will integrate freshly updated NAVTEQ map data for the United States to its server, providing users optimal routing information.

The Voice Navigator, NavStar's first commercially available product, is a connected navigation product that interfaces with a wireless phone to create a hands-eyes-free turn-by-turn navigation system through a voice recognition and response system. NavStar has combined the safety of hands-free driving with the convenience of voice navigation. Input for a route or hands-free calling is via the user's natural voice. Turn-by-turn directions are delivered back to the user aurally without diverting the driver's attention from the road.

The Voice Navigator utilizes the user's existing digital wireless connection and service plan. The Voice Navigator also comes with a central unit that acts as conduit for all navigation guidance which provides the vehicle positioning information, enabling NAVTEQ maps to be used to configure an optimal route. Subscribers can state the exact address desired or access NAVTEQ's extensive Points of Interest database which includes over six million listings including airports, restaurants, hotels, banks, gas stations and other popular destinations.

"As NavStar forges into the fresh navigation space of interactive voice command routing, we need to establish Voice Navigator as a quality product with the most precise maps and robust routing capability available," stated Douglas Pritt, CEO & president, NavStar. "NavStar selected NAVTEQ because we wanted to align with the clear leader of enhanced map data. The NAVTEQ quarterly map downloads on Voice Navigator will help provide our customers with the most up-to-date maps available." "NAVTEQ is pleased to be powering a device that offers a new approach to getting people to their destinations in the most efficient and accurate manner possible," commented Winston Guillory, senior vice president, consumer & enterprise, NAVTEQ. "We look forward to supporting NavStar as it enters the growing connected services industry."

NavStar is a former NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge 2005 Semi-Finalist. The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge is a competition designed to stimulate the LBS industry by encouraging application developers to build innovative LBS applications that work with portable devices using wireless technology and NAVTEQ maps.

SOURCE NAVTEQ